Delta State University President William N. LaForge has been a source of information recently for a number of media outlets calling about a national hot-button issue \u2014 testify before congress.<\/p>\n
LaForge has been an authority on the subject following his 2010 book, “Testifying Before Congress: A Practical Guide to Preparing and Delivering Testimony Before Congress and Congressional Hearings for Agencies, Associations, Corporations, Military, NGOs, and State and Local Officials.”<\/span><\/p>\n The book guides and assists witnesses and their organizations in preparing and delivering Congressional testimony.<\/p>\n LaForge will conduct an on-air interview about the topic with Toronto’s Business News Network and has also been interviewed by NBC.<\/p>\n On April 9, the Harvard Business Review published an interview with LaForge on the subject. The original article can be viewed here:\u00a0https:\/\/hbr.org\/2018\/04\/how-to-testify-before-congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n Below is the HBR interview, authored by\u00a0Daniel McGinn<\/a>, a senior editor at HBR:<\/p>\n How to Testify Before Congress<\/strong><\/span> by Daniel McGinn<\/p>\n It\u2019s a predictable part of nearly every big business scandal: the moment when the CEO is summoned to Capitol Hill to testify before a congressional committee. For Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg,\u00a0this rite of passage happens this week<\/a>, when he will testify about data breaches and how foreign states allegedly used social media to try to influence the 2016 presidential election. Observers are already\u00a0speculating<\/a>\u00a0about how Zuckerberg will perform and whether he might join the list of CEOs (like\u00a0Equifax\u2019s Richard Smith<\/a>) whose appearance made the company\u2019s predicament even worse. To get a sense of how a CEO should approach this task,\u00a0I spoke with William LaForge, a former Washington lawyer and lobbyist and author of\u00a0Testifying Before Congress<\/a><\/em>. (Since 2013\u00a0LaForge has served as president of Delta State University, in Mississippi.)\u00a0The following is an edited, condensed version of our conversation:<\/p>\n HBR: How difficult is it to find the right expertise to help someone prepare for this?<\/strong><\/p>\n LaForge: Testifying at a congressional hearing is actually very commonplace. There are hundreds of hearings every week when Congress is in session. So there\u2019s a cottage industry of advisers who help prepare people to testify. Most hearings are informational or educational, not adversarial. Many of them are yawners \u2014 boring, inside baseball. These sensationalized, highly publicized ones only come along a few times a year. But Washington is filled with lawyers and lobbyists who get clients ready for their day in the hot seat.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the most common mistake CEOs make when preparing to testify?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are several. One is to act like you\u2019re the smartest person in the room. It\u2019s not just CEOs who do that \u2014 look at Judge Bork\u2019s hearing for the Supreme Court back in 1987. Compare that with John Roberts, who may actually have been the smartest person in the room but still behaved with humility and honesty. That approach works much better. You also need to recognize and lead with your key message. During the financial crisis, the automakers\u2019 CEOs flew down in corporate jets, and they talked about it \u2014 that became the big issue. Around the same time, the Wall Street CEOs appeared and tried to justify their salaries, at a time when there was public outrage about that issue. That was a mistake. But in general, the biggest mistake \u2014 far and away \u2014 is failure to prepare properly. You need to do live practice sessions, and watch yourself on video. People may think they\u2019re a naturally eloquent speaker, but you\u2019re on somebody else\u2019s turf, and you\u2019re playing by different rules.<\/p>\n How does preparing an executive for congressional testimony differ from, say, preparing to testify at a deposition or a trial?<\/strong><\/p>\n Congressional testimony is a much more arcane process, so it\u2019s different. You need to focus on the purpose of the hearing and what the officials on the dais want to hear. You get to submit a written statement and give affirmative remarks, so you\u2019re not just answering questions. Before the hearing, there\u2019s often dialogue between congressional staffers and the CEO\u2019s staff, so you can obtain guidance about what the committee wants to hear \u2014 that can be very helpful. You need to understand the format: Everyone speaks in a certain order, with strict time limits. What I would tell Mark Zuckerberg is to make sure you know what the committee needs to hear, get your points across, be conversational, and don\u2019t sound too defensive or apologetic. Repetition is good: What you say in the written statement, your opening statement, and in response to questions should all be the same. [Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0Here\u2019s Zuckerberg\u2019s prepared testimony<\/a>.]\n Very often, the politicians seem to give mini-speeches rather than asking questions. How does a CEO deal with that?<\/strong><\/p>\n You just sit there and take it. Learning to do that is part of the preparation. There will be a lot of editorializing, and the rules allow that. There will be peacocks who want to show their colleagues and constituents how much they know about the issue. A witness needs to be callused against that. Don\u2019t interrupt. If there is a question in there, answer it. If there\u2019s something in their comment that\u2019s really factually incorrect, you should correct it for the record. But don\u2019t get hostile.<\/p>\n Are there certain personality types that tend to crash and burn in this format?<\/strong><\/p>\n The most egregious sign is if the principal is dismissive during preparation \u2014 when he says \u201cI\u2019ll be fine\u201d and wants to read the briefing book the night before. This is not\u00a0a time to be cavalier. This is a time to roll up your sleeves and overprepare. I also worry about high-end Type A people, the ones who like to spar and fight. This is not the time to do either. In this format, the committee members have the first word and the last word.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Delta State University President William N. 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